Carlow Manager Turlough O'Brien has spoken out ahead of his side's Leinster Senior Football Championship quarter-final against Dublin on Saturday, claiming the media has no idea of the quality of Division 4 and that his side won't be diverging from the tactics that got them past Wexford.
Speaking to KCLR Radio, O'Brien said that Carlow will not be intimidated by the magnitude of the game and that he believes in the potential of his team.
When the final whistle went that Sunday (against Wexford) you could see what it meant to the players and their families and supporters, the pitch was mobbed, you’d think we won the All Ireland.
Championship victories are as rare as hen’s teeth in Carlow for the last number of years so it was a massive win for us.
We were clear underdogs in the media but I put that down to lack of knowledge of Division 4 football to be quite honest because we were quietly confident coming into the game that we could turn Wexford over.
The night of the win O’Brien went out cycling his usual route before checking his phone and seeing a lot of missed calls from RTE looking for him to come onto the Sunday game. After a quick phone call with Des Cahill, O’Brien sped home, got changed, and made it to the studio by 22.15pm to talk about the win on air.
O'Brien said that he hadn't really thought too much about the Dublin clash until after their win against Wexford but threw away the idea that they would try a more defensive approach.
People are talking about blanket defences and all the rest but we scored 2-17 last week, and could have scored 6-17 and any day of the week that’s a good score. The system of play is very mobile, the team is in superb condition thanks to Damien Sheehan and his team of people so really a lot of the pieces of the jigsaw are in place for the team to perform to its maximum capability. That’s all you can ask for.
We won’t be going into this game intimidated or with nerves or pressures that just doesn’t come into it they are so well prepared there’ll be no question of them freezing.
